Found remains believed to be human

Charred bones found on Covelo Road Thursday afternoon are believed to be human remains after detectives found what appeared to be teeth among them, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office announced Friday morning.

A caller at 12:23 p.m. May 16 reported finding remnants of burnt ground in a secluded area off of Highway 162 near the 1.04 mile marker, just north of the highway's juncture with Highway 101. On closer inspection, the caller saw what appeared to be bones among the burnt remnants, according to the MCSO. Sheriff's detectives responded to investigate and found "several badly charred bones" that were believed on Friday morning to be of human origin, the MCSO stated.

"We do feel the fire was intentionally set," Van Patten said, adding that detectives believe the fire occurred "within the last couple of weeks." He said investigators are also working to determine whether an accelerant was used. "It was a very hot fire," he said. Although there are some small, whole bones among the remains, most are "just bits and pieces," according to Van Patten. He said the bones are so badly charred that it isn't immediately obvious to detectives whether they belonged to a human or an animal.

"They're consistent with what (detectives) were seeing as human remains in past investigations," MCSO spokesman Lt. Greg Van Patten said Friday. "It's a gut feeling at this point, which is why we need to follow up."

Detectives will be consulting with a forensic odontologist -- a dentist specially trained to identify unknown remains -- and forensic anthropologist to determine whether the bones are human, according to the MCSO. Dr. James Wood, a forensic odontologist and family dentist in Cloverdale, is expected to examine the remains Sunday, according to Van Patten.

He said detectives hope Dr. Wood can tell whether the teeth found among the remains belonged to a human, and, if so, find characteristics that could be comparable to existing dental records to help identify them. The next step would be to send the remains to a human identification laboratory at California State University of Chico's Anthropology Department, according to Van Patten.

If the remains are found to be human, he said, the Chico State laboratory could not only tell the height, sex and age of the deceased, but could also examine the bones for nicks and "other specific trauma to the bone" that could indicate whether there were any knife or bullet wounds, Van Patten said.

Anyone with information that could aid the investigation is urged to call the Sheriff's Office tip line at 234-2100.